The Proud Poet by Joyce Kilmer

One winter night a Devil came and sat upon my bed,His eyes were full of laughter for his heart was full of crime."Why don't you take up fancy work, or embroidery?" he said,"For a needle is as manly a tool as a pen that makes a rhyme!""You little ugly Devil," said I, "go back to HellFor the idea you express I will not listen to:I have trouble enough with poetry and poverty as well,Without having to pay attention to orators like you."When you say of the making of ballads and songsthat it is woman's workYou forget all the fighting poets that have been in every land.There was Byron who left all his lady-loves to fight against theTurk,And David, the Singing King of the Jews,who was born with a sword in his hand.It was yesterday that Rupert Brooke went out to the Wars and died,And Sir Philip Sidney's lyric voice was as sweet as his arm wasstrong;And Sir Walter Raleigh met the axe as a lover meets his bride,Because he carried in his soul the courage of his song."And there is no consolation so quickening to theheartAs the warmth and whiteness that come from the lines of noble poetry.It is strong joy to read it when the wounds of the spirit smart,It puts the flame in a lonely breast where only ashes be.It is strong joy to read it, and to make it is a thingThat exalts a man with a sacreder pride than any pride on earth.For it makes him kneel to a broken slave and set his foot on a king,And it shakes the walls of his little soul with the echo of God'smirth."There was the poet Homer had the sorrow to beblind,Yet a hundred people with good eyes would listen to him all night;For they took great enjoyment in the heaven of his mind,And were glad when the old blind poet let them share his powersof sight.And there was Heine lying on his mattress all day long,He had no wealth, he had no friends, he had no joy at all,Except to pour his sorrow into little cups of song,And the world finds in them the magic wine that his broken heartlet fall."And these are only a couple of names from a listof a thousand scoreWho have put their glory on the world in poverty and pain.And the title of poet's a noble thing, worth living and dying for,Though all the devils on earth and in Hell spit at me their disdain.It is stern work, it is perilous work, to thrust your hand in thesunAnd pull out a spark of immortal flame to warm the hearts of men:But Prometheus, torn by the claws and beaks whose task is neverdone,Would be tortured another eternity to go stealing fire again."